Oracle has changed the license of its embedded database library, Berkeley DB. The software is widely used as a key-value store within other applications and historically used an OSI-approved strong copyleft license which was similar to the GPL.

Under that license, distributing software that embedded Berkeley DB involved also providing "information on how to obtain complete source code for the DB software and any accompanying software that uses the DB software."

Now future versions of Berkeley DB use the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL). This says "your modified version must prominently offer all users interacting with it remotely through a computer network ... an opportunity to receive the Corresponding Source of your version."

This will cause some problems for Web developers using Berkeley DB for local storage. Compliance has not really been an issue because they never "redistributed" the source of their Web apps.Now they will have to make sure their whole Web app is compliant with the AGPL and make full corresponding source to their Web application available.

They also need to ensure the full app has compatible licensing. Practically that means that the whole source code has to be licensed under the GPLv3 or the AGPL.

According to a number of sources, the ugly truth behind the sale of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) license to Electronic Arts is that THQ was never able to break even with the franchise. This revolution is confirmed by industry guru Michael Pachter from Wedbush. When all the numbers are added up, it would seem that this is correct.

While the news of the UFC video game license moving to EA was big news, it isn’t a surprise, when you consider that the third UFC title released by THQ needed to reach the 2 million mark in sales just to break even. UFC Undisputed 3 has apparently only sold about 1.4 million copies, which is much less than the 2 million breakeven point.

It will be interesting to see how much more successful EA is with the UFC license and if it will be able to turn it into a yearly sports franchise or it will alternate years with Fight Night as EA’s original MMA title was initially tapped to do. Our sources tell us that a lot it in flux with EA and the UFC license and they are still in the process of making decision on how best to proceed, but sources continue to tell us that we should not expect to see a UFC title from EA till at least 2013 and it might be 2014 if EA elects to skip the platforms of this generation and instead focus on a release for the Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4, both of which are now expected in 2014.

In an interesting turn of events, Electronic Arts has cut a deal whereby they will become the new home to the UFC video gaming license. The deal sees former license holder THQ now out of the UFC picture, despite developing some very good UFC video games for a number of platforms.

The deal that EA has cut with the UFC is a multi-year exclusive deal that will give EA video game publishing rights on all platforms, including console and mobile. THQ will continue to market and sell its console and mobile UFC titles until March 31st, 2013.

It is believed that the first UFC title to come out of the EA stable will not arrive till 2014. While EA is still planning how it will attack the new UFC license, it is unknown if it will return to using some of what it had already created in its MMA title that was previously released when EA pulled the plug on the online server portion in April 2012.

UFC President Dana White (who had a minor running feud with EA after they rejected pitches from White to license the UFC for a video game title) now says that, “We’re excited to enter a new relationship with EA that will help us deepen our connection with fighting fans around the world.” It does sound like any bad blood has been forgotten and both sides are looking forward to growing the new franchise.

White also thanked THQ in a released statement, saying that they created some of the most critically-acclaimed sports video games of the console generation. As to why THQ was willing to let the UFC license go is still up in the air; from what we are hearing, it all comes down to money and the best use of it at THQ and, of course, some money has changed hands.

Today a case opens in the District Court of Berlin which may have bit effect on the way that Open Sauce software is developed and distributed.

On one side is the manufacturer and distributor of DSL routers AVM and on the other is Cybits (Cybits) which produces children's web-filtering software. Both companies use the Linux kernel, which is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2 (GNU GPL); a Free Software license permitting everyone to use, study, share, and improve works which use it.

AVM wanted to stop Cybits from changing any parts of the firmware used in AVM's routers, including the Linux kernel. However The Free Software Foundation Europeand gpl-violations.org consider AVM's action as a broad attack against the principles of Free Software, and thus against the thousands of individuals and companies developing, improving and distributing Free Software.

AVM filed two actions against Cybits. It claimed that when their customers install Cybits' filtering software on AVM routers it changes the routers' firmware and consequently infringes on its copyright.

It seems to think that even changing the Linux kernel components of the firmware is not allowed. The Court of Appeals of Berlin said that this was daft September 2010 and refused to grant an injunction. Now, the District Court of Berlin will have to decide on the issue again, this time in the main proceedings.

If AVM succeeds, it will break the legal rights of the authors of the programs, who decided that software freedom was more important to them than directly receiving license fees.

THQ has put the headlock on the UFC license for video games till 2018, despite the poor sales of the 2010 release. The license is for more than video games, as the company will be branching out to offer a variety of other UFC-branded entertainment options such as offerings for iPhone/iPod/iPad, mobile platforms, and social network sites.

In addition to the UFC video games, the company is planning a UFC Trainer and UFC Fitness offering. These will not arrive till sometime in 2011 and will be new product offerings for THQ. According to sources, it is expected that these offerings will take advantage of the motion control technology of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. A release on the Nintendo Wii is apparently unlikely for these titles.

THQ is apparently still going to be sticking to its plan to release UFC video game titles every other year, which apparently the company believes should help the title perform better than it did with the 2010 release. Other releases will fill in the gaps.